February 28, 2011 Monday Message:
“Rescue me from the miry mud; don't let me sink. Let me be rescued from those who hate me, and from the deep waters.” Psalm 69:14
David chronicled both his life’s stories and his walk with the LORD. So today, 3000 years later, we can not only read his story, but also feel his frustrations and emotions. David is very real, very authentic.
David spends the first portion of Psalm 69 complaining about what people did to him. He lists incident after incident, situations where others tried to destroy him, mock him and shame him. David wants God to execute a plan of vengeance, to even the score.
The things that happened to David were real. But here, David is feeling a little sorry for himself. He rants, gets it off his chest, and lets it all out. He whines a wee bit. But enough complaining — let’s take some action that will move us forward.
Through all of this, David has always known the solution. In verse 13 he prays, “… LORD, my prayer is to You … answer me with Your sure salvation.”
We’re human. When we find ourselves in life’s mire and mud, we tend to complain, rant and whine just like David. But children of the living God have the same supernatural help available that lifted David out of his mire: God, His Son and the Holy Spirit.
You may not be able to lift yourself out of your mire, and complaining about your situation won’t help. But God can and will do for you what you cannot do for yourself. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart!” Proverbs 3:5
Norton Lawellin
Monday, February 28, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
For the Lord is Good!
February 21, 2011 Monday Message:
“For the LORD is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.” Psalm 100:5
We are children of God, and because we’ve been adopted into the Holy family, we should have a certain familiarity with God-the-father. God wants us to know him by his name, by his holy name. Most of you know that anytime we see “the LORD” in all-capital letters in the Bible, usually small-caps, it stands for God’s name. This occurs only in the Old Testament. The Hebrew letters correspond most closely to YHWH in our language, so some people pronounce it Yahweh or Jehovah. Unfortunately we do not know the exact pronunciation. But you can be comforted that God wants to be on a first-name basis with those made in His image.
God is good; all the time. The Bible often translates God’s “khesed” as his unfailing love, his everlasting lovingkindness, or some similar verbiage. It’s difficult to put that much love into human words. His love continues forever, and He will be faithful to generation after generation.
Being faithful is a two-way street. God will be faithful to us; but can we remain faithful to Him? Yes, it’s possible, and many remain faithful in spite of adversity. When things go wrong, God will lift us out of the mire and be our substance, our solid ground. After all, through our faith we are saved by His grace.
Norton Lawellin
“For the LORD is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.” Psalm 100:5
We are children of God, and because we’ve been adopted into the Holy family, we should have a certain familiarity with God-the-father. God wants us to know him by his name, by his holy name. Most of you know that anytime we see “the LORD” in all-capital letters in the Bible, usually small-caps, it stands for God’s name. This occurs only in the Old Testament. The Hebrew letters correspond most closely to YHWH in our language, so some people pronounce it Yahweh or Jehovah. Unfortunately we do not know the exact pronunciation. But you can be comforted that God wants to be on a first-name basis with those made in His image.
God is good; all the time. The Bible often translates God’s “khesed” as his unfailing love, his everlasting lovingkindness, or some similar verbiage. It’s difficult to put that much love into human words. His love continues forever, and He will be faithful to generation after generation.
Being faithful is a two-way street. God will be faithful to us; but can we remain faithful to Him? Yes, it’s possible, and many remain faithful in spite of adversity. When things go wrong, God will lift us out of the mire and be our substance, our solid ground. After all, through our faith we are saved by His grace.
Norton Lawellin
Monday, February 14, 2011
Jonah
February 14, 2011 Monday Message:
About 200 years after David, and 800 years before Jesus, we find the minor prophet Jonah. Jonah is best known for being swallowed-up by a “greate fyshe” (Tyndale) when he chose to take himself out of God’s lineup. Let’s look at the story.
When God calls you, the right thing to do is to get going. When YHWH told Abram, “Go from your country … to the land I will show you,” Abram packed his bags. He didn’t need to consult anyone in his entourage. Even though Abram didn’t know the destination, he got going, because that’s what God said to do.
When God called Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh to repent and return to the Lord, he got going too. But Jonah’s fear sent him in the opposite direction! Jonah tried to hide from God. This gave God the opportunity to showcase his omniscience, his omnipresence and ultimately his sovereignty. Jonah could not hide from God, and from this we learn that you and I cannot hide either.
Jonah arranged passage on a ship that would take him as far from God as possible. But his disobedience angered God, and appeared to be the cause of the stormy seas. The sailors first tried everything they knew to save themselves, but nothing worked. Finally, as a last resort and following Jonah’s recommendation, they cast him into the sea to face certain death. The water immediately became calm, and the sailors, seeing this, became instant believers in the God of Israel.
Surprisingly, this was not the end for Jonah. God sent a big fish to scoop Jonah out of the water, and three days later the fish put Jonah on the beach, safe and sound.
In three days Jonah was saved by God’s action, and in three days we were all saved by God’s action. God often rescues us just when we need it.
There’s a lot of Jonah in each of us: uncertainty in answering God’s call, fear slowing us down, disobedience and sin, and the need to be rescued, i.e. God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Jonah was far from perfect, but God used him anyway. He can do the same with each of us.
Feliz dia de San Velentin!
Norton Lawellin
There’s a lot more to the story. I’ll fill in the holes at Chapel this Friday night at New Hope Center.
About 200 years after David, and 800 years before Jesus, we find the minor prophet Jonah. Jonah is best known for being swallowed-up by a “greate fyshe” (Tyndale) when he chose to take himself out of God’s lineup. Let’s look at the story.
When God calls you, the right thing to do is to get going. When YHWH told Abram, “Go from your country … to the land I will show you,” Abram packed his bags. He didn’t need to consult anyone in his entourage. Even though Abram didn’t know the destination, he got going, because that’s what God said to do.
When God called Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh to repent and return to the Lord, he got going too. But Jonah’s fear sent him in the opposite direction! Jonah tried to hide from God. This gave God the opportunity to showcase his omniscience, his omnipresence and ultimately his sovereignty. Jonah could not hide from God, and from this we learn that you and I cannot hide either.
Jonah arranged passage on a ship that would take him as far from God as possible. But his disobedience angered God, and appeared to be the cause of the stormy seas. The sailors first tried everything they knew to save themselves, but nothing worked. Finally, as a last resort and following Jonah’s recommendation, they cast him into the sea to face certain death. The water immediately became calm, and the sailors, seeing this, became instant believers in the God of Israel.
Surprisingly, this was not the end for Jonah. God sent a big fish to scoop Jonah out of the water, and three days later the fish put Jonah on the beach, safe and sound.
In three days Jonah was saved by God’s action, and in three days we were all saved by God’s action. God often rescues us just when we need it.
There’s a lot of Jonah in each of us: uncertainty in answering God’s call, fear slowing us down, disobedience and sin, and the need to be rescued, i.e. God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Jonah was far from perfect, but God used him anyway. He can do the same with each of us.
Feliz dia de San Velentin!
Norton Lawellin
There’s a lot more to the story. I’ll fill in the holes at Chapel this Friday night at New Hope Center.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Made in HIS Image
February 07, 2011 Monday Message:
“God created mankind in his own image...” Genesis 1:27a
Have you ever thought of God as a grandfatherly patriarch seated on a huge royal throne in the sky? That’s what I was taught at church and in Sunday school. Pictures in books and paintings served to reinforce the concept. But is that the right way to picture God? Is that the way the great I am — is?
We don’t really know what God looks like. That’s how he wants it. We’ll find out soon enough. So are we made in God’s image, or are we making God in OUR image? Do we have the whole thing reversed? Backwards? Worse still, are we making an idol in our mind’s eye?
Before alphabets were invented, the Hebrew people utilized picture-writing. Writing God’s name became a sort of sin, because you had to draw a picture of God, which the Jews considered making an idol. Because we don’t really know what God looks like, any image we might make of him would be incorrect.
When God came to earth as Jesus, he utilized the body of a man to walk among us, heal and teach us, and to rescue us from our sinful ways. After Jesus ascended into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit, the paraclete, a comforter or advocate for us. We do not know what the Holy Spirit looks like, but the Bible describes him as breath, wind or air. What does breath look like?
Bodies are for earthly beings. When God calls our soul, our nephesh, to the next reality, we will no longer need bodies. I don’t know exactly how we’ll look, but for sure we’ll fit in — our spirit will be made in HIS image.
Norton Lawellin
“God created mankind in his own image...” Genesis 1:27a
Have you ever thought of God as a grandfatherly patriarch seated on a huge royal throne in the sky? That’s what I was taught at church and in Sunday school. Pictures in books and paintings served to reinforce the concept. But is that the right way to picture God? Is that the way the great I am — is?
We don’t really know what God looks like. That’s how he wants it. We’ll find out soon enough. So are we made in God’s image, or are we making God in OUR image? Do we have the whole thing reversed? Backwards? Worse still, are we making an idol in our mind’s eye?
Before alphabets were invented, the Hebrew people utilized picture-writing. Writing God’s name became a sort of sin, because you had to draw a picture of God, which the Jews considered making an idol. Because we don’t really know what God looks like, any image we might make of him would be incorrect.
When God came to earth as Jesus, he utilized the body of a man to walk among us, heal and teach us, and to rescue us from our sinful ways. After Jesus ascended into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit, the paraclete, a comforter or advocate for us. We do not know what the Holy Spirit looks like, but the Bible describes him as breath, wind or air. What does breath look like?
Bodies are for earthly beings. When God calls our soul, our nephesh, to the next reality, we will no longer need bodies. I don’t know exactly how we’ll look, but for sure we’ll fit in — our spirit will be made in HIS image.
Norton Lawellin
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